gamer's den

For those who are new or who wants to try purchasing In-game Currencies such as WoW Gold, Eve Isk, Dofus Kamas, Maple Story Mesos or even any other products from online stores, this article will provide you the information to help you evaluate the security and integrity of the store from a better perspective.

There are many online shops that are frauds and scams that cannot be removed from the internet. What do you need to check?

1. Method of Payment accepted by the site:

Most RMT sites (real money trading), in-game currency or wow gold shops uses Paypal as their only or primary merchant processor. Paypal today has been by far been the most reliable online merchant processing solution. Next is Moneybookers which also provides almost similar service to Paypal but are not limited to credit card payments only. And then there's Western Union .

I myself do not recommend payment using Western Union money transfer for security purpose since most online scammers uses Western Union money transfer.

2. Security of the website:

Another method of trusting a site is knowing how long the site/domain and store has been opened for or where is it registered. You can do this by using Whois.net , it will tell when the domain was registered and who it is register to. Another tool is the WayBack Machine from Internet Archive , this site will show you when the site first appeard online and the cached pages on the related updates.

Next would be checking the SSL security of the website or the digital signature. If you are providing important information (personal data) in a website specifially online stores, you need to make sure you are accessing a secured site. You can check if you are accessing a secure site by the following:

• look for the padlock icon sample 1, sample 2
• look check for the SSL security provider such as GoDaddy , Verisign , or McAfee Secure . There are online store which post the SSL seal of their provider but are already expired, below is the list of what it should contain:
  

An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates the identity of a Web site and encrypts information sent to the server using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. Encryption is the process of scrambling data into an undecipherable format that can only be returned to a readable format with the proper decryption key.

A certificate serves as an electronic "passport" that establishes an online entity’s credentials when doing business on the Web. When an Internet user attempts to send confidential information to a Web server, the user’s browser accesses the server’s digital certificate and establishes a secure connection.

An SSL certificate contains the following information:

• The certificate holder’s name
• The certificate’s serial number and expiration date
• A copy of the certificate holder’s public key
• The digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority

Third party reviews of the store, ratings and hearing out what other customers have to say can be very helpful as well. Be sure to know the stores policy, whether they offer any type of refunds, guarantees and where their gold is obtained and etc. If the gold is duped, you may be at risk of losing it or even getting your account banned.

2. Customer support:

A good customer service and support can make or break a business. Check the deal support or the methods on how you can file dispute or change or returns of items. What support are provided:phone, email or chat. Is it available online 24/7 or for a specific time. There are online shops which provides chat support (live chat) but are unable to satisfy the customer's concerns.

I have tried a couple of websites that provide live chat support but are crappy and uses their live chat support just like a regular messenger. I prefer formal talk/chat since I am a customer.

There are many factors that will give you ideas on how well the store operates. I hope this help and have a secured shopping!

Which one are you?

• Achievers - Players who seek to maximize their score or items or status in the game.
• Explorers - Players who want to experience and understand the game world and its design.
• Socializers - Players who use the game as a mechanism to form and expand their social circle.
• Competitors - Players who want to compete with and excel over other players. Dr. Bartle seems to take a more negative view of this category than I do in that he includes abuse of other players as an implicit part of this category. To his four categories, I would add a set of mirror categories. The dark side of gaming:
• Earners - Players who seek to earn the most wealth in the game for real-world reasons. These are the gold farmers and power-levelers.
• Exploiters - Players who carefully study, explore, and analyze the game world and its mechanics to identify weaknesses that give them a substantial advantage, usually due to flaws in the game design and implementation.
• Harassers - Players who use the social mechanisms of the game to make the experience as miserable for others as possible.
• Dominators - Players who use the game's mechanics to make other players miserable. These players are not really interested in doing better than other players, but in making other players know that they have been beaten.
• Exploiters and Earners are often closely tied to game commerce. Exploiters help optimize the earning potential of the game. Harassers and Dominators cover two of the main categories of griefing.